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Honduras Talks Stall on Plan to Return President

A supporter of the ousted Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, held a flag during a gathering on Sunday in Tegucigalpa.Credit
Daniel LeClair/Reuters

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — Negotiations to end the standoff in Honduras collapsed Sunday when the de facto government that ousted President Manuel Zelaya rejected a mediator’s solution for him to return but with limits on his power.

A delegation representing the de facto government, led by Roberto Micheletti, dismissed a seven-point plan presented by President Óscar Arias of Costa Rica, who is mediating the talks in that country’s capital, San José.

The plan would have restored Mr. Zelaya as president over a unity government, curtailed his powers and moved up the election for his successor by one month, to October. It also included a general amnesty for all political crimes, a tacit recognition that the country could not move forward unless the events surrounding the June 28 coup were pushed aside.

Mr. Zelaya’s delegation accepted all the points, Mr. Arias said.

But Mr. Micheletti’s delegation arrived Sunday morning with a counteroffer that rejected Mr. Zelaya’s reinstatement as president and proposed instead that he return home to stand trial.

The de facto government charges that Mr. Zelaya committed a series of crimes as he pushed for a referendum that could lead to rewriting the Constitution. His opponents said the move was aimed at letting him run for re-election.

By rejecting Mr. Arias’s mediation, the de facto government risks isolating itself even further. It has not been recognized by any country, while the United States, the United Nations and the Organization of American States have stood behind Mr. Zelaya as the legitimate president of Honduras and called for his return.

The Obama administration has also cut $16.5 million in military aid to Honduras and threatened to cut some $180 million in development aid. Loans from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank are suspended.

Yet the Micheletti government appears unmoved.

Speaking as Mr. Arias stood behind him at a brief news conference Sunday, the chief government negotiator, Carlos López, said requiring Mr. Zelaya’s restoration “is an open interference in Honduras’s domestic affairs and a lamentable distortion of your role as a mediator.”